U.N. Zambezi River Basin Talks Begin

NAIROBI, Kenya — Experts from six Zambezi River basin countries and U.N. agencies completed initial preparations Friday for an international treaty on use of the 2,200-mile river.

The Nairobi-based U.N. Environment Program convened the three-day meeting to begin plans for the project, an effort to promote development while preserving the environment.

"With its falls, rapids, canyons, artificial lakes and wild tributaries, it presents a unique zone of the African mainland," Gennady Golyubev, assistant executive director of the program, was quoted as saying in a U.N. statement on the meeting.

The Zambezi meanders across southern Africa to the Indian ocean. In its basin are Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South-West Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Angola and South-West Africa, a U.N. trust territory administered by South Africa, did not send representatives to the meeting.